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Associate Professor Makoto Ikeya of CiRA received the German Innovation Award "Gottfried Wagener Prize 2018" at an award ceremony held in Tokyo on June 26, 2018.

The prize was created in 2008 by the technology-focused German companies and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan to recognize innovative research in four fields - Materials, Digitalization and Mobility, Energy, and Life Sciences - achieved by scientists at 45 years old or younger.

The award recognized Ikeya for his discovery that rapamycin may inhibit the excesseive bone growth that defines the orphan disease fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) by using iPS cells. CiRA Professor Junya Toguchida, who supervised Ikeya's research, and the Kyoto University Hospital started a clinical trial on 20 FOP patients in 2017.

In his speech at the ceremony, Ikeya thanked his colleagues, family members and FOP patients for their support to carry out his research. The iPS cells used in the research were generated from somatic cells donated by FOP patients. "Without patients' help, we could not have done any research. I am grateful to those people," he said.